Ben Jealous Stepping Down as NAACP Leader

Ben Jealous, who led the NAACP for five years and helped re-energize that organization, is stepping down as president and CEO at the end of this year.

CWA President Larry Cohen called Jealous "a dynamic leader not only for the civil rights community, but for all people determined to win true justice."

"His work at the NAACP has made that organization a powerful and leading voice for economic and social justice. And early on he realized that joining with other progressive groups was the best way to reach that goal. We know that he will continue the fight for justice for all in everything he does," Cohen said.

Under Jealous, the NAACP was one of four founding members of the Democracy Initiative, which is bringing together allies who share the determination to break through the barriers to justice for ordinary Americans: voter suppression, the pervasive influence of corporate money in politics, the broken Senate rules and the lack of a path to citizenship for 11 million immigrants. The other founders are CWA, Sierra Club and Greenpeace.

CWA activists have joined with NAACP members and other allies in New Jersey, Ohio, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Alabama, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and in many other places, standing together for what's right and to fully build our democracy